Old Walcountians out of Surrey Shield (From Surrey Comet)

Old Walcountians out of Surrey Shield

9:58am Monday 23rd January 2012 in Other Rugby By Rob Murphy

Failure to make first half possession tell proved costly for Old Walcountians as they were ejected from the Surrey Shield by Surrey League 2 strugglers Old Rutlishians last Saturday, losing 22-14.

Few observers would have doubted anything but a comforttable victory for the Counts after their whirlwind start.

From the kick-off, the forwards seized the game by the scruff of the neck and stormed into the home side’s 22. Only three minutes were on the board when Walcountians struck first blood as rangy No 8 Gerry Connor got his hand to the ball as the forwards drove over the Rutlishians line from a maul. Skipper Ollie Beales converted the try to give the Counts an early seven point lead.

Walcountians should have built up a substantial lead in the first half with the possession they had, but complacency allowed Rutlishians back into the game.

There were flashes of brilliance from flanker Jack South whose breaks from rucks were difficult to contain, and prop Steve Cowlin also made his mark with some bullocking runs.

Behind the scrum, Rutlishians had difficulty in containing Walcountians’ powerful outside-centre Rudy Sanwell. But their efforts were not sufficiently supported by team mates.

Rutlishians’ back row and backs were always quickly up on their opponents and forced several turnovers through lack of support and handling errors, and were back in the game after 20 minutes when they won a maul in the Walcountians 22 and put their left winger away to score in the corner.

Walcountians responded to the danger and upped their efforts as the first half drew to a close.

With five minutes to go to the break, they extended their lead to nine points when Steve Cowlin charged at the Rutlishians defensive line from a tap penalty to set up a ruck, from which the ball was recycled to find veteran inside-centre Mike Bramble who rolled back the years and brushed off two tackles to touch down for a try which Ollie Beales again converted.

Walcountians once again lost the initiative in the second half and an increasingly confident Rutlishians XV began to believe they could pull off an improbable victory as they began to turn the tables on the Counts. The failure by Walcountians to secure possession of the loose ball was to prove costly and, 13 minutes into the second half, Rutlishians took full advantage when they counter-attacked from their own half and put their right-winger in for a try.

Walcountians appeared to be safe until the final ten minutes when everything that could go wrong did. Firstly, scrum-half Callum Stone was controversially sent off as Walcountians defended their line against a five-metre scrum. This left the Counts short-handed and, from the resulting scrum, Rutlishians pushed their way over for their No 8 to touch down for a try which gave them a narrow lead. Then four minutes from the end, the Counts were on the wrong end of another controversial decision after the referee awarded Rutlishians a penalty try after Walcountians moved too quickly to counter an attack from a scrum. Rutlishians converted this try to seal victory.

Next Saturday, Walcountians return to League action when they take on mid-table Cranleigh. Kick-off at Clock House is at 2:15pm.